THE LOUSY STATE OF THE UNION

Pitiful is another word for the state of the
union, as was Pres. Bush's report on it, and
is the cowardly political performance of the
Democratic-led Congress in knuckling under
to him on issue after issue. "We faced hard
decisions about peace and war, rising compe-
tition in the world economy, and the health
and welfare of our citizens," the president
told us in his speech. Yes, and he has mis-
handled all of them, and congress still won't
blow the whistle on him, and stop our losses.

We continue to subsidize with tax breaks U. S.
companies dismantling our industrial base and
shipping it overseas. We are losing our manu-
facturing jobs, and increasingly our high tech
and white collar jobs, and replacing those with
hamburger flipping and custodial work. You
can't support a family on the latter. Our working
class struggles heroically, but is falling farther
and farther behind. That's the state of the union!

As the Federal Reserve keeps lowering interest
rates to help the stock market, they are devaluing
the dollar and chipping away returns on savings.
This is dangerously inflationary, says Robert
Samuelson in the 2/4/08 Newsweek.

We are over-reaching internationally, and
heading into national decline. Our wars are
costing us $9 billion per month, and we are
doing it all on a credit card. Our national debt
is now over $9 trillion and climbing. We keep it
afloat by borrowing from the Arabs and the Chi-
nese, neither of whom are really our friends.
They are like wolves watching a fat, stupid pig,
and licking their chops. Some of our largest
banking and investment houses, having lost
billions in the last few months, have had to sell
chunks of their companies to foreigners in
order to avoid bankruptcy.

"As the American economy slows down," observes
Fareed Zakaria (in the same issue of Newsweek),
". . . the fastest growing big economies in the
world -- China, India, Brazil -- appear set to con-
tinue with their robust growth." They find that
our cheap dollar makes investment in America
very attractive. The more of us they own, the
more they control. That's the way it works!

"The United States is beginning a period of
relative decline," says Zakaria. "It may not be
steep or dramatic, but the fact that it is beginning
is clear. Even if one assumes a slow down, the
other big economies will still grow at two or three
times the pace of the West. Over time they will
take up a larger share of the global economy ---
and the United States and Western Europe will
have thinner slices. This is not defeatism, it's
math." And it's truth.

And we are in denial. The people running for
national office recognize some of the problems,
but offer little in concrete solutions. Mr. Romney
told the auto workers in Michigan that he will
restore the U. S. auto industry to its former
glory, and bring back all the lost jobs! He spoke
as if there is no Toyota, and no moving of our
auto jobs to Mexico and Canada. It's fantasy!
The jobs that are gone are not coming back. We
need to create new jobs restoring our broken
infrastructure and developing environment-
friendly energy sources, such as wind and solar.

As for our president, "His is a legacy of dulled
American dreams at home and debilitating
American influence abroad," writes Marie Cocco
in the (1/31/08) Oregonian. Mr. B. went to the
Middle East and begged the Saudis to lower the
price of oil. They curtly brushed him off, and
reminded him for the umpteenth time to get
the Israelis out of the West Bank. Then they'll
talk. Meanwhile, Lebanon teeters on the brink
of civil war. The Shia there (Hezbollah), backed
by Syria and Iran, are at odds with the Sunnis
and the Christians (backed by the U. S. and
Israel). We won't talk to Syria or Iran, because
they are helping Hezbollah and Hamas, neither
of whom even existed before Israel's brutal and
illegal occupation of the West Bank. End the
occupation and you end Hezbollah and Hamas.
Then we can talk to Syria about Lebanon, and
Iran about Iraq, as our Iraq Study Group urged.
Vali Nasr, an Iranian-born professor at Tufts,
explains all of this brilliantly in The Shia Revival.
Too bad no one in leadership here has the wit or
the will to lay all this out clearly to the American
public. No one running in the primaries will do
it either. Everyone is afraid of the Israel lobby.
Israel is tragically and criminally wrong in this
quarrel, as Jimmy Carter explains objectively
and accurately in Palestine Peace or Apartheid.
All of the rest of the world understands this.
It's another reason for our decline in moral
influence and prestige. It makes a mockery of
our oft repeated concerns for human rights and
democracy.

BTW, if you are not in the sun every day,
remember to take supplemental vitamin D!
You need a lot more than you get in foods
that have it added.

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net